President: Mona Lisa Saloy, Ph.D., Dillard University, Department of English (2014-2016)
Vice President: Jocelyn Donlon, Ph.D., Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts (2014-2016)
Secretary: Jennifer Ritter Guidry, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Center for Louisiana Studies (2015-2017)
Treasurer: John Sharp, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Center for Louisiana Studies (2015-2017)

Directors at Large

Frank de Caro: New Orleans (2013-2015)
Marcia Gaudet: University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Ernest Gaines Center (2013-2015)
Shelly Ingram: University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Department of English (2013-2015)
Solimar Otero: Louisiana State University, Department of English, Baton Rouge (2015-2017)
Shane Rasmussen: Northwestern State University of Louisiana, Louisiana Folklife Center (2015-2017)
Helen A. Regis: Louisiana State University, Department of Geography and Anthropology (2013-2015)
Susan Roach: Louisiana Tech University, Department of English (2015-2017)
Leslie Wade: Louisiana State University, Medieval & Renaissance (2015-2017)
Shana Walton: Nicholls State University, Department of English (2015-2017)

Miscellany Editor: Keagan Lejeune, McNeese State University, Department of English (2013-2018)

Lt Governor Jay Dardenne has proclaimed Wednesday, June 4 as Louisiana Folklife Day to recognize the importance of Louisiana’s living traditions. Louisiana is celebrated worldwide for its unique traditions as reflected in its food, music, dance, celebration and crafts.

“Every one and every group has folklife,” explained Teresa Parker Farris, chair of the Louisiana Folklife Commission. Learned informally over time, folklife exists within all of Louisiana’s ethnic, regional, occupational, and family groups.

The Louisiana Folklife program’s newly expanded website, Folklife in Louisiana, presents the state’s regional and ethnic folklife in virtual books, including the new Delta Pieces: Northeast Louisiana Folklife; virtual exhibitions, including A Better Life for All: Traditional Arts of Louisiana’s Immigrant Communities, and hundreds of research essays, photographs, video, and audio components. The related Louisiana Voices Educator’s Guide, draws upon this state folklife scholarship to provide rich teaching resources and methods for all educational levels on Louisiana folk arts and culture.

The Lt. Governor will read the proclamation in front of the Creole State Exhibit located in Ackal Hall of the State Capitol in Baton Rouge at 2 pm on June 4, 2014 with the Louisiana Folklife Commission in attendance. The exhibit features traditional crafts from throughout the state and was made possible by Lt Governor Jay Dardenne and the Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism.

Louisiana Folklife Day Proclamation

WHEREAS, Folklife includes living traditions learned informally over time within ethnic, regional, occupational, and family groups; and

WHEREAS, Folklife enriches education by recognizing and celebrating diversity, connecting the past to the present, transmitting cultural values, and fostering a sense of community and regional identity in the state; and

WHEREAS, Louisiana is celebrated worldwide for its unique food, music, dance, celebration and craft traditions influenced by state’s diverse ethnic group; and

WHEREAS, Folklife lies at the heart of Louisiana’s robust cultural heritage tourism, with cultural enterprises serving as a major employment engine for the state economy and contributing the regional growth; and

WHEREAS, The Louisiana Folklife program’s newly expanded website, Folklife in Louisiana, presents regional and ethnic folklife in virtual books, including Delta Pieces: Northeast Louisiana Folklife; virtual exhibitions, including A Better Life for All: Traditional Arts of Louisiana’s Immigrant Communities, and hundreds of research essays, photographs, video, and audio components; and

WHEREAS, The Louisiana Voices Educator’s Guide, provides rich teaching resources and methods for all educational levels; and

WHEREAS, The Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism and its Louisiana Folklife Program promote the state’s indigenous cultural traditions;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Jay Dardenne, Lt. Governor of the State of Louisiana, by the authority vested in me as Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana, do hereby proclaim June 4, 2014,

Louisiana Folklife Day
in the state of Louisiana.